


Good Evening, Good Night

by end_alls



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, post kh3, riku listens to sleep podcasts, vague remind spoilers but why are you here otherwise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22471384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/end_alls/pseuds/end_alls
Summary: Riku finds a transmission of someone's voice coming through the Gummiphone at night, and he uses it to help him sleep.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 104





	Good Evening, Good Night

After another fruitless day had been spent, Riku walked the long halls of the Land of Departure on one last patrol before he changed into his pajamas, and climbed into bed. He unlocked his Gummiphone in the darkness, flipping through the icons until he found the TRANSMISSIONS app.

It was normally located in the Utilities folder, but it had been moved to the home screen for easier access. He’d found it one night, playing with his phone when sleep couldn’t find him here, so far from home.

The app itself was pretty sparse—just a slider in the middle that functioned as a dial, a red line that displayed wavelengths, and a text box that allowed you to key in a set of numbers for a frequency. It didn’t seem like it’d been intended for anything but finding radio signals in an emergency.

The first time Riku had used it, he’d moved the slider idly around, listening to static and snatches of sounds from across the stars. He’d found bits of music, a conversation too muffled and corrupt to understand.

Then, like the parting of waters, the slider had found someone’s voice—calm and monotone, drifting in and out of the white noise as static lapped its edges. Riku had held his finger there, trying to tune the dial just right, and eventually, the voice had started to come in clearly.

It always began more or less the same, no matter when he tuned the Gummiphone to the frequency. Even tonight.

_“—Good evening, or morning, or afternoon, or whenever. Where or whenever you’re listening to this… I’m glad you found it. I hope it helps.”_

Riku set the Gummiphone beside his pillow, screen up to show the red line pulse in time with the audio. Then he closed his eyes.

 _“Maybe you can’t sleep either,”_ the voice said. _“Maybe that’s why I’m here, because I’ve been there. Not able to sleep.”_ The voice paused, and Riku imagined them adjusting something on their own device—whatever it was they were broadcasting from.

_“That’s why I started making these. Talking to nobody, or somebody. At first it was just to pass the time, but then I sort of thought… well, if I’m not getting any sleep, someone else should. So, while sleep avoids me… maybe it’ll find you somewhere on the way.”_

Riku smiled slightly, cheek against his pillow.

_“I can’t promise it will, but sometimes wishing is enough.”_

The transmissions, or recordings, were all a little different, but Riku wasn’t sure how long they went on, because he could never stay awake to finish them to the end. The longest he’d ever made it was a little under an hour, before sleep had taken him. And it did, every night, like clockwork. No matter how badly the day had gone, heedless of the outlines of teardrops on his pillow—the voice calmed his mind and his heart, and eased him down into sleep. It was better than anything else he’d tried this past year, and these days, he didn’t even attempt to sleep without it.

 _“I don’t know what kind of day you’ve had, but mine was pretty long.”_ The speaker kept their voice completely even as they spoke, and though they occasionally mentioned work being stressful, they always kept the conversation light. Mundane. Like this emptiness between one day and the next was a safe place for them, too.

 _“I fell asleep during a meeting, today. Again.”_ The voice let out a self-deprecating chuckle. _“Got a real earful later.”_

Riku’s lips pursed sympathetically. With the search for Sora going so poorly, he’d begun to lose focus more and more during their own meetings, catching more and more disappointed looks from Yen Sid as a result.

 _“I started the day with coffee and everything, too.”_ The speaker was smiling a little, now. Riku could hear it in the words. _“Guess I drank that awful stuff for nothing, huh.”_

Riku didn’t find the taste to be too bad, but the spike it gave his anxiety was never worth it. Sora, on the other hand, had never been able to stand it at all.

 _“…I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”_ The smile left the voice. _“The doctors haven’t been able to find anything. Doesn’t matter the caffeine or whatever I’ve had that day, either. When sleep calls… I guess I answer.”_

The speaker had talked about this before—falling asleep when they shouldn’t, not being able to sleep when they should. So it had gotten worse.

The voice became muffled, like they were dragging a hand down their face. _“Sorry for going there, so soon… I know I said I’d stop bringing it up here, but it’s just…”_

 _It’s okay,_ Riku thought.

 _“Sometimes, it’s hard for me to tell if I’m actually awake.”_ The voice lapsed into silence.

Days alone passed in a blur, and before he’d found this broadcast, Riku’s sleep had been so fitful he’d taken to hardly sleeping at all. It had felt like walking between worlds. Like not knowing which world was the waking one.

When the voice remained quiet, Riku opened his eyes slightly, to check that the frequency was still coming through. The red wavelength line was completely still, but the channel hadn’t been changed. He closed his eyes again. Keeping them open was an effort.

When no sound came, Riku dragged his hand from the sheets, fingers tracing the bottom of the Gummiphone’s case, as if the motion could urge the voice to continue.

_“At least you’re here.”_

Riku froze still, before he remembered where he was.

 _“Is that weird?”_ the voice went on. _“I keep saying ‘you’, but I don’t know if anyone’s actually listening to this.”_

_I’m listening._

_“But maybe someone is. I don’t know. It’s a feeling.”_

_I know the feeling._

_“So… thanks. When I bring this up in real life, it’s… well… People get different. Start acting like they need to protect me, when it’s supposed to be the other way around.”_

Riku found he was hanging on every word, heart beating loud enough that he could hear it in the eardrum against his pillow, and yet he still felt the inevitable pull of sleep as the voice began to drag him under.

_“I just want to make this right.”_

_You will._

_“I’m going to make this right…”_

Riku’s focus was slipping, even as this time, he tried to hang on.

_“I want you to know that. S…”_

Riku was plunged into his dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> I listen to sleepy podcasts to help keep my mind off of stuff when I’m trying to fall alseep, and I bet they’d be good for Riku too. (The Sleep With Me podcast and The Empty Bowl are a couple)  
> I really like the idea that Riku’s calls for Sora are pulling him up out of his slumber, and that in turn calls Yozora into sleep to push Sora back into stasis again, in a tug-of-war that they aren’t quite aware of.
> 
> Thanks for reading, I'm on twitter at [toppiegames!](https://twitter.com/toppiegames)


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